Gajanan Padmanabhiah vs The State of Goa

N.A. Britto, J.—Heard Shri S.P. Hegde, learned Counsel on behalf of the petitioner and Shri C. A. Ferreira, learned Public Prosecutor on behalf of the Respondent.

By the present petition, the petitioner/accused seeks quashing of the charge-sheet filed against him under Sections 13 (1), (3) r/w Section 13(2) of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988.

This is the second time, a charge-sheet has been filed against the petitioner/accused.

By Judgment/Order dated 18-7-2008, the learned Special Judge was pleased to discharge the petitioner/accused for offences punishable u/s 13(2) r/w Section 13(1)(e) of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988. The petitioner/accused was prosecuted for having disproportionate assets for the period from 31-3-1983 to 17-3-1999. The learned Special Judge in discharging the accused had come to the conclusion that the Officers of the CBI who had investigated the case were not authorized by the Superintendent of Police as required by the second proviso to Section 17 of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988. The F.I.R. was not quashed.

Now another charge-sheet has been filed, presumably, after complying with the deficiencies which were noted earlier, and it is for quashing of this charge-sheet that the petitioner/accused has approached this Court in this petition filed u/s 482 of the Code.

Shri C. A. Ferreira, learned Public Prosecutor submits that after the filing of the charge-sheet, the petitioner is entitled to seek his discharge at the stage of framing of charge, and, therefore there is no case made out at this stage for interference by this Court u/s 482 of the Code.

Shri Shankar P. Hegde, learned Counsel appearing on behalf of the petitioner/accused submits that he has no objection in case the case is remanded for hearing the arguments at the stage of framing of charge but learned Counsel submits that such a remand must be accompanied by a direction to the learned Special Judge to consider the documents submitted by the accused by his application dated 13-1-2006 in the previous case. That such a direction can be given, according to the learned Counsel, is now settled with the decision of the Apex Court in the case of Rukmini Narvekar v. Vijaya Satardekar and Ors. 2008 SAR (Criminal) 978 . Learned Counsel further submits that the case of State of Orissa Vs. Debendra Nath Padhi, was rendered with reference to Section 227 of the Code while the case of the accused will be required to be dealt with u/s 239 of the Code which unlike Section 227 requires, inter alia, the accused to be examined and the accused being given an opportunity of being heard. In the case of Rukmini Narvekar v. Vijaya Satardekar and Ors.(supra) the Apex Court observed that "in our opinion, therefore, it cannot be said as an absolute proposition that under no circumstances can the Court look into the material produced by the defence at the time of framing of the charges, though this should be done in very rare cases, i.e. where the defence produces some material which convincingly demonstrates that the whole prosecution case is totally absurd or totally concocted. We agree with Shri Lalit that in some very rare cases the Court is justified in looking into the material produced by the defence at the time of framing of the charges, if such material convincingly established that the whole prosecution version is totally absurd, preposterous concocted".

I am not inclined to exercise the extraordinary jurisdiction u/s 482 of the Code at this stage for the quashing of the charge-sheet filed against the accused. As already stated a new charge-sheet is filed against the accused presumably, after complying the deficiencies earlier noted by the learned Special Judge and the accused has the remedy of seeking his discharge at the stage of framing of charge. The accused is also entitled to file a similar application like the one filed earlier before the Special Judge and seek leave to produce the documents listed in application dated 13-1-2006. In case such an application is filed, I have no doubt in my mind, that the learned Special Judge will consider the same afresh without being influenced in any manner by Order dated 6-6-2006 earlier passed, and in accordance with law, after considering the law laid down by the Apex Court in Rukmini Narvekar v. Vijaya Satardekar and Ors.(supra).

With the above observations, this petition is disposed of. Learned Counsel informs that the case is already fixed on 29th instant before the learned Special Judge. Parties to attend the Court on the said date. The learned Special Judge to expedite the inquiry/trial against the accused considering that the F.I.R. was filed in the year 1999 and the first case was filed in the year 2001.